Taxpayers’
cash is also being funnelled into a £670million subsidy of pro-European
documentaries and art-house films revelling in scenes of sex and
violence.

Nigel Farage,
frontrunner to lead the UK Independence Party, last night described the
draft budget as proof that Brussels had lost touch with reality. He
said: “The idea of sending eurocrats into orbit has its charms but
£23million extra for space research is bizarre.

“Will
the first EU space rocket have gold-plated taps and marble flooring? It
seems our eurocrats have finally got off the Brussels gravy train and
boarded Starship Excess.”

The
500-page draft was rubber-stamped by MEPs on the same day that
Chancellor George Osborne was pulling Britain back from the brink of
financial ruin with an £81billion cut in state spending.

The
EU document is unapologetic about the 13 per cent increase in next
year’s European space programme from £181million to £204million.

It
states: “Decreasing financial support for policies like research and
innovation, which are core priorities of the European Union cannot be
accepted by the European Parliament, because they can be harmful for the
functioning of the programmes. Therefore, increasing appropriations… is
fully justified.”

The
document also lavishes taxpayers’ cash on a six-year media programme to
bankroll films promoting Europe’s “identity and heritage”.

There
is an 85 per cent increase in the entertainment budget and a £551,000
rise in funding for the private company that arranges MEPs’ travel.

Although
it is a private company, the EU travel agency will next year enjoy a
public subsidy topping £1.7million to make sure its politicians and
their families fully enjoy their holidays.

Some
£26.4million has been pledged for the Euroscola programme, which allows
MEPs to pay people to visit them in Brussels on fact-finding trips. Web
TV, the European parliamentary channel watched almost exclusively by
eurocrats and MEPs, will enjoy an £8million grant next year.

A further £850,000 has been set aside to promote cross-border tourism.

Mr
Farage said: “The profligacy of the European elite and their projects
is astonishing. Cars, trips, wine, social clubs, all paid for out of our
taxes and of virtually no benefit to anyone bar themselves.”

The
revelations came as the Open Europe think tank published research
showing that while 192 quangos in Britain face the axe, quango-land in
Brussels is thriving.

The
cost of EU quangos has tripled over the past five years and will top
£2.1billion in 2011, of which £300million is funded by Britain’s hard
pressed taxpayers.

The
draft budget outlines an eight per cent increase in quango costs,
including the creation of five new agencies and support for the existing
47 quangos.

They include the European Institute for Gender Equality, which will receive £46million next year.

Emma
Boon, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Taxpayers hand billions to the
unaccountable, meddling EU every year and, despite cutting spending
here, the EU is continuing to burn through our money at an even faster
rate.

“While
we are abolishing dozens of wasteful quangos, our savings are being
undone as Brussels creates new ones. Meanwhile, Brussels is busy slowing
down Britain too, with EU red tape costing British business and
organisations billions every year.”

The MEPs have backed European Commission plans for a 5.9 per cent increase in the EU budget for 2011.

Prime
Minister David Cameron yesterday branded the inflation-busting demand
“outrageous” and vowed to use this week’s Council of Ministers meeting
to form an alliance aimed at forcing a cash freeze on the EU budget. If
he fails, Britain will see its contribution rise by £840million next
year, pushing Brussels’s bloated budget up by almost £7billion to
£114billion next year.

With Britain now pouring £48million a day into the EU, demands are growing for a referendum on whether we should be in or out.

Jon
Gaunt, radio presenter and spokesman for the EU Referendum Campaign,
said: “There is a massive disconnect between the political class and
ordinary people and this is an issue where people can rally behind the
flag and say it’s not right. The EU Referendum Campaign is not saying
let’s get out of Europe. We are just saying let’s have a debate about
this and let’s have a vote.”

The campaign has a petition on the internet which it hopes will attract the signatures of hundreds of thousands of voters.

In
the run-up to the election, David Cameron outlined plans to trigger
legislation in Parliament for any petition backed by one million or more
citizens.

While
that democracy pledge did not survive the coalition agreement, one
million signatures calling for an EU referendum would be impossible for
politicians to ignore.